How To Get Rid Of Cockroaches
Roaches love damp places and release pheromones which get embedded in porous objects such as paper or rugs to let other roaches know they’ve found a safe place. Thus, do your best to make the environment as dry and as food free as possible. This means daily wiping down anywhere food or liquid may be, vacuuming at least weekly, getting rid of clutter, disposing of any cardboard or paper that is not necessary, and mopping tiled areas like the kitchen or bathroom at least every other day. The important thing to keep in mind is that a roach can eat nearly everything and can live on very little. That small meatball that fell under the couch without anyone noticing a month ago is a long lasting feast that will feed many of them. So it’s important to keep food localized to a single room as well. Investing in a good dehumidifier is also an excellent idea. This will take the moisture they enjoy out of the air. Also, make sure to dispose of the garbage every night and to put away pet food and water dishes.
When you turn on the light and see them skittering away, it is usually to their nest. It’s a good idea to simply follow them. Once you have isolated the nest you can bombard the area and the surrounding area either with poison and cleaning solutions. A more environment friendly method is boric acid. This powder is white and will dehydrate them quickly if they walk through it. Additionally, they will track it back to their nest. This makes this odorless powder very efficient in killing them in a reasonable amount of time. Some people may not like the idea of boric acid however; a similarly effective method may be achieved with some bait and borax. Borax is a very sharp powder and when combined with bait will tear up a roach’s insides. By mixing some water, Crisco or animal fat, flour and borax into balls about the size of an olive, you can make little delicious poison balls (for roaches) which you can place in dark areas, like under the sink. Basically the flour and animal fat will make the borax tasty and the roach will consume it. You may want to mist this concoction every few days. It’s best to keep it in an open Tupperware container to avoid contaminating the surrounding area with water when misting.
Thus by controlling the environment, food source, and using something poisonous to them one can get rid of roaches before the infestation takes hold and in some cases even hold it at bay until an exterminator arrives or destroying the population altogether.